About this project

$10,495

191

We've reached our goal, but that doesn't mean you can't preorder the album! Our incentives are still up for grabs, and all additional pledges will go directly to the project.

Thanks for your support!Ben and Jason

The Project

Hi. We’re Ben and Jason, two Second City grads collectively known as Six Hours Short. We are raising funds to record 12 songs from our original comedy musical, The Lockout: A Musical, for a Fall 2013 production in Chicago. The Lockout has already grabbed the attention of ESPN.com’s Henry Abbott, whose Truehoop article attracted a call from an NBA executive who offered some additional material for the show.

Our $10,000 goal covers the recording of a 5-piece rock band and the Chicago cast vocalists, as well as the mixing, mastering, and duplication of a 12 song album.

The Album

With power and millions of dollars at stake, emotions run high in our 12 original songs that feature genres from Motown and classic rock to R&B and angsty self-reflective 90’s acoustic. We’re confident that this album will be musically worth listening to, but don’t worry, it provides plenty of laughs. Here’s a taste...

I am Basketball- A defensive David Stern raps about his tenure as NBA Commissioner (“You wanna fight on a game that’s national? / You and all you friends can wear business casual!”)

Nice and Slow- A player’s plan to end the lockout sounds suspiciously like relationship advice. ("Step A: Make them look your way / Step B: Be real discreet / Step C: You are my galaxy")

I Believe- Wichita Water owner Phil never thought of Macon as a superstar. Macon never saw himself playing in Wichita. A game of HORSE and a passionate duet changes everything.

More to this Man than Me - Macon, an NBA free agent, reflects on his life as a player and wonders if there could be more to life than being “just a loser who bought his mom five houses.”

The Show

The Lockout: a Musical, loosely based on the 2011 NBA lockout, follows Phil Illum, owner of the fictional Wichita Water, whose search for a franchise superstar ends in Macon Jones, a zero-time all-star who doesn’t play defense. Their friendship, which begins suddenly during a game of HORSE, is tested when the NBA owners lock out the players following a labor dispute. Separated from his new best friend, Phil must fight a disgruntled general manager, bitter players, the commissioner, and his own insecurities to save the season and hang out with his buddy Macon.

Can this fictional NBA team find a superstar?

Who are you again?

Six Hours Short is Ben Fort and Jason Gallagher (founder and editor of NBA humor site Ballerball.com). Our mission is to create fun theater about subjects we love, entertaining passionate fans and everyone else. We wrote together in college before moving to Chicago to study comedy writing at the Second City. Six Hours Short’s first show, Chester and the Unbearable Burden, Parts I and II, fulfilled our mission: it’s about a subject we love (Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings), and entertained passionate fans (recommended by Mugglenet.com) and everyone else (recommended by Chicago Theater Beat).

Ben and Jason solving problems

Why?

Artistic Consistency.A musical is only as good as its music, and we’re aiming for a specific indie pop-rock tone rather than the traditional musical feel. To achieve this sound, we’re collaborating with a band, specifically our good friends in Oklahoma City’s Mopak, who have been writing together since the mid 00’s and have shown a knack for crafting incredible cover songs (personal fave: a dance-rock take on “Everybody Wants to Be a Cat”). Their experience and songwriting will shape tunes into songs and songs into an album worth listening to. As the cast and band prepare for opening night, they’ll rehearse with Mopak’s instrumental tracks, which will ensure consistency with our vision for the show.

MarketingThe album will serve as the The Lockout’s ultimate marketing tool, a tangible calling card that can be listened to and shared. When people hear about the show, they’ll search online to hear the songs. We want them to hear professionally recorded songs, not a Youtube clip recorded from a cast member’s friend’s iPhone. A successful Kickstarter campaign will also aid in marketing our cast auditions. We expect that the opportunity to record will be attractive to talented Chicago performers.

Why Just Kickstart the Soundtrack?We would need $30,000 to fund both the show and the album; quite frankly a terrifying amount for an all-or-nothing Kickstarter campaign. If we raised the same amount through investors, it would be near impossible to give a positive return on investment. By funding the album through Kickstarter, we become more attractive to potential investors in a couple of ways: we have an opportunity to recoup the $20,000 production costs, and we demonstrate tangible support and momentum toward a successful production.

Beyond Chicago: 2014 New York Musical Theater FestivalWe anticipate The Lockout: a Musical to have a life beyond the original Chicago production. This fall, we will submit The Lockout to be considered for the 2014 New York Musical Theater Festival. The festival, which gets covered by the New York Times, is a launching pad for new musicals, where producers scout for the next big Broadway or Off-Broadway hit. To apply, we must include “a demo recording, containing at least 75% of the songs in the show” that “accurately conveys the style of the score.” A professionally recorded album will not only help us stand out among applicants, but would help market the show if it gets accepted.

Risks and challenges

We know the instrumental tracks will be fantastic, but our cast vocalists will be determined by auditions in Chicago this spring. You can help ensure the cast sounds stellar by letting your talented Chicago friends know about this project. We will keep our supporters updated on upcoming auditions and other show news.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $25 or more
About $25

BENCH receives D-LEAGUE + Exclusive access to 4 Google Hangouts covering different aspects of the album and show: Writing, Acting, Basketball, and Music, each of which will preview a song from the album!

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $50 or more
About $50

ROTATION PLAYER receives BENCH + We'll send you a hard copy of the album, along with a Wichita Water sticker + Access to video footage of I Believe and I am Basketball from our staged reading + We will answer your submitted questions at the Google Hangouts

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $500 or more
About $500

MVP receives ALL-NBA + Exclusive backstage access. After seeing the show once, you and a guest can watch again from backstage to see how it’s done. Additionally, you can schedule a time to drop by and see the album be recorded- either the instrumentals in Oklahoma City or the cast vox in Chicago (travel to Chicago and/or Oklahoma excluded)

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $1,000 or more
About $1,000

RETIRED JERSEY receives MVP + We’ll literally retire your jersey. We'll make a custom Wichita Water jersey with your name and number, hang it from the ceiling during the show, and send it to you after the show closes.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $5,000 or more
About $5,000

HALL OF FAME receives RETIRED JERSEY + We'll name a show character after you or a friend of yours (no celebrities), and name your company in the show as a sports channel sponsor + Album producer credit.